I’ve reviewed books from Dawn Publications (Facebook/Twitter/blog) before (see here). They publish some of the best nature books for kids in my opinion. Their two new titles for Fall are equally as informative, creative, and appealing as previous titles.

In If You Love Honey: Nature’s Connections (Nevada City, CA: Dawn Publications, 2015), Martha Sullivan and illustrator Cathy Morrison teach kids about where honey comes from and how important pollination is to maintaining healthy ecosystems. Beginning with honey, they link it to bees, dandelions, ladybugs, goldenrod, butterflies, and many more plants and animals before returning back to honey. It’s a cycle where life is all dependent on other life to make the system work. It’s an important ecological lesson to teach kids. At the end of the book we see mom and her son picking blackberries – “If you love blackberries, You can’t help but love honey bees!” A outdoor picnic lunch follows with a plastic bear full of honey and a bowl of freshly-picked blackberries. Materials for classroom lessons follow: a section about how nectar is turned into honey, another about how pollination works, lots of information about bees, and resources for parents and teachers. Here are some sample pages (courtesy Dawn Publications) that will give you an idea of the text (click to enlarge):

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Moles are interesting critters. While they are pests to anyone trying to maintain a nice looking yard, the presence of moles is actually a good sign. In Mighty Mole and Super Soil(Nevada City, CA: Dawn Publications, 2015), Mary Quattlebaum tells the story of the everyday life of a mole and other animals she encounters in the soil. As she digs through the soil with her strong, clawed forepaws, seeking food (moles are insectivores), she helps aerate the soil allowing for water to more easily seep through, and thus creating more healthy soil for plants. Quattlebaum tells her story on the left page, while providing mole facts on the right side. As with all of Dawn Publications’ titles, the illustrations – by Chad Wallace – are full of color and warmth. In the back of the book, the author includes factual information about the underground animals in the story, questions about super characteristics of the mole, and activities and resources for parents and teachers. Here are some sample pages (courtesy Dawn Publications) that will give you an idea of the text and detail in Wallace’s illustrations (click to enlarge):

As for most of their titles, Dawn Publication offers downloadable activities related to its books for classroom use. Find them here.